Coquitlam Express 7 Victoria Grizzlies 3 @ Bear Mountain Arena Mar 6,2012

The Grizzlies lost to the Coquitlam Express 7-3 on Tuesday night at the Bear Mountain Arena. The Grizzlies fell behind 1-0 early and the game would stay that way until 8:39 into the second period when high-scoring 17 year-old rookie Alex Kerfoot the first of his two goals on the night. The goal and a collision between Jaden Schmeisser and Clinton Atkinson touched off a lot of chirping between the benches and Cody Michelle of the Express got a 10 minute misconduct for what looked like a punch thrown at Grizz defenceman Jaden Schmeisser sitting on the Grizzlies bench. The Grizzlies would close to within one when on a set-up by rookies Myles Powell and Nolan de Jong, Alex Holland used a nice drag move and snapped a wrist-shot home to make it 2-1 for the Express. The Express scored 3 goals in the last five minutes of the second to take command of the game with a 5-1 lead heading into the third period. Both teams scored twice more in the third period with the first Grizzlies goal on a slapshot from the point by Jaden Schmeisser for his first career BCHL goal. Myles Powell and Mark McLellan drew the assists. Chase Kaiser in his return from injury finished the scoring for the Grizzlies when he picked the corner with a wrist-shot on assists from Cam Lawson and Braxton Bilous. The sounding of the final horn touch off more chirping between the teams with Brady Shaw and Schmeisser being separated by the linesmen and Stefan Gonzales restraining his teammate. Schmeisser has a previous history with both Atkinson and Shaw having fought them both earlier in the year and coming away with decisive victories. Neither player seemed to want much to do with Schmeisser unless there was an official standing between them.

Grizz thoughts: For the second straight game Mike Sandor was one of the best Grizzlies skaters and created good chances with his speed. Myles Powell picked up a pair of assists and was creating good chances for his teammates. Stefan Gonzales again had a few good chances to score his first as a Grizz but couldn’t quite convert them. Congratulations to Jaden Schmeisser for scoring his first BCHL goal.